Rugby 2011

Its looking like we are doomed on Saturday. The longer Darcy gets picked the further backwards we go. Hope Murray did enough to get on from the start because Reddan was dreadful when he came on.

Apart from our shambolic appearance, it was a decent weekend's games. Pity Scotland / Romania was on in the middle of the night. Scotland have thier work cut out Wednesday against Georgia, who are better than Romania.

Great shows from Japan and Namibia on Saturday as well.

If Wales made a bigger deal of that penalty in the first half they may have beaten the boks, who I must say look a bit jaded. Bit of karma for the welsh though, given the try they got in Cardiff against Ireland in the 6 nations.

Enjoyable weekend.

Well, you got our wish RaM, the Reddan-Sexton axis of evil has triumphed. I'm not normally a fan of either player, but together, and with BOD and Darcy, and Robbie Kearney, a Leinster filled backline will do well. I was both happy and disappointed with Tommy Bowe, he looked like he'd gotten new hands for Christmas or something. Rory Best did well at the weekend, and I had an odd comment from a friend watching it - "Doesn't Rory Best look like a member of a Loyalist paramilitary murder squad?"

Odd isn't the word for that!

Very harsh on Trimble that he doesn't get a chance. Harsh on Murphy too- but then the only reason he's ever in the team is so that he can be harshly dropped again.

D'arcy is very lucky indeed. Sexton probably very relieved after the kicking issues last week- he may have been saved by the fact that a lot of kickers had massive problems in the first games.

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Originally Posted by Spudulika

Well, you got our wish RaM, the Reddan-Sexton axis of evil has triumphed. fan of either player, ?"

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Not sure you read my post correctly there. With Reddan and Darcy - both of whom are not international standard anymore, barring a super-human perfomance from the Irish pack - we are going to get soundly beaten. 20 / 30 points. Never wished to be this wrong before!

Well... what can you say about that.

Wonderful second half.

Stephen Ferris, Mike Ross, Sean O'Brien were immense.

Come on Ireland!!!!

Sure, I've always 'loved' rugby...
;)

Good result mind.

wow, just wow. What a lift for the weekend. Great battling performance though I'm sure RTE will find fault to keep viewers interested.

Fantastic win! I was saying all week they would do it. People were too hung up on '07. The games before the World Cup though in defeat and the US win were nothing like 4 years ago. Well done to the men in green! Hopefully they can kick on now and do the job to win the group. We don't want any slip-ups against the Italians in the last pool game.

Some jumbo sized Australian player interviewed after the game claimed that Ireland were good at spoiling the ball.
What does that mean (aside from sour grapes)? negative tactics? conning the ref? or is spoiling the ball a legit thing, as in 'put them under pressure'.

Sour grapes. Not even worth commenting on.

Ha. Spoiling the ball!!! A couple of offsides and off the feet in the first half maybe.

The problem is we held up the tackle so we were gonna have the put in. The aussies couldn't live with it.

NZ are the kings of ball spoiling.

So, what does 'spoiling the ball' mean in rugby?

Not playing it. Or Google may have a better answer.

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Originally Posted by geysir

So, what does 'spoiling the ball' mean in rugby?

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slowing the ball down at the breakdown - the Australians wanted it to come out quickly before the Irish defence was organised, but the Irish made sure that didn't happen.

They've just started broadcasting the game again on TG4 for those of you with a cupla focal.

Ireland were immense but still a lot of mistakes with the ball in hand. There's obviously a problem with the ball as both Sexton and O'Connor missed easy kicks. Overall I think the scoreline flattered Australia but all that matters is the win. I was off my seat the entire second half. Still, Italy is not a foregone conclusion and Wales/Somoa are both looking strong if we do top the pool. This World Cup has suddenly become very, very unpredictable.

To the home of stupid place names and the amber nectar, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, questionable cuisine, Dame Edna, Alf Stewart, Michael Hutchence, Skippy, Ayer's Rock/Uluru, Kylie and Jason, Rupert Murdoch, Mel Gibson (sort of), Shane Warne and Rolf Harris...........your boys took one hell of a beating!!!

I think Ireland have a bigger match in them in this tournament. Hopefully fingers crossed it's a performance we get to see in the very latter stages.

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Originally Posted by The Fly

To the home of stupid place names and the amber nectar, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, questionable cuisine, Dame Edna, Alf Stewart, Michael Hutchence, Skippy, Ayer's Rock/Uluru, Kylie and Jason, Rupert Murdoch, Mel Gibson (sort of), Shane Warne and Rolf Harris...........your boys took one hell of a beating!!!

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Don't forget Crocodile Dundee :laugh:

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Originally Posted by freewheel30

Don't forget Crocodile Dundee :laugh:

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As the man himself might say: "Call that a pack? THIS is a pack."

Healy, O'Connell, Ferris and O'Brien were unreal. They couldn't live with our intensity upfront and I'm not surprised if they're feeling a little sour about it. Nothing's done yet, so don't want us getting carried away, but if we maintain that kind of application at the breakdown we're a match for anyone with the possible exception of the All Blacks.

Really does throw the expected knock out games out the window this result.

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Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton

As the man himself might say: "Call that a pack? THIS is a pack."

Healy, O'Connell, Ferris and O'Brien were unreal. They couldn't live with our intensity upfront and I'm not surprised if they're feeling a little sour about it. Nothing's done yet, so don't want us getting carried away, but if we maintain that kind of application at the breakdown we're a match for anyone with the possible exception of the All Blacks.

Really does throw the expected knock out games out the window this result.

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must admt as a non rugby fan unbelieveable performance from ireland deserved to win by more my only little gripe is having no national anthem before game it has been replaced by irelands call personally i find it disrespectfull to us as a proud little nation. :mad:

The island of Ireland doesn't have a national anthem.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

The island of Ireland doesn't have a national anthem.

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ah hello charlie !!!! Amhrán na bhFiann ( the soldiers song) is the national anthem of ireland .. soccer / boxing / swimming / tennis / rowing /athletics etc ,etc all seem to be proud to have it as their anthem . so what is the problem with an irish rugby team using it.

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Originally Posted by old git

must admt as a non rugby fan unbelieveable performance from ireland deserved to win by more my only little gripe is having no national anthem before game it has been replaced by irelands call personally i find it disrespectfull to us as a proud little nation. :mad:

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The Team anthem as it's called is Irelands' Call.
Amhrán na bhFiann is only played before our home games out of respect for the hosting jurisdiction.

Technically when we play (the odd time) in Ravenhill GSTQ should be played but it's a minefield.

I'd rather be rid of all of them so I don't have to stand for Irelands' Call at games.

"My Lovely Horse" would be the business.

this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xp-S...eature=related

or

this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kajk92_QqwM&feature=related

You decide.

@ Charlie, the problem is that the island of Ireland has "too many" anthems.

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Originally Posted by old git

ah hello charlie !!!! Amhrán na bhFiann ( the soldiers song) is the national anthem of ireland .. soccer / boxing / swimming / tennis / rowing /athletics etc ,etc all seem to be proud to have it as their anthem . so what is the problem with an irish rugby team using it.

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The cricket team uses Ireland's Call as well. I don't know if they play AnabhF at the games in Rathmines but they definitely don't in Belfast. The cricket and rugby teams don't represent one country, they represent all the people on the island so the anthem of the Republic is not appropriate to use.

The other sports (apart from soccer) are organised on an all-Ireland basis but represent only the Republic of Ireland. Athletes/swimmers/etc. from the north are free to represent the Republic of Ireland or the UK.

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Originally Posted by BonnieShels

@ Charlie, the problem is that the island of Ireland has "too many" anthems.

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True. I think Ireland's Call is dreadful as a song but as an anthem it seems to pump people up and when you see people like Stephen Ferris belting it out before a game it's hard to argue that it doesn't do the job advertised.

I really like Amhran na bhFiann as a song, it's just a pity that it mainly involves killing British soldiers. It's understandably a bit of a sore point with our northern neighbours and it surprises me to this day why people from the south don't understand why it's so objectionable to our more loyal friends.

I see some tin pot Dublin councillors are getting in on the act over the national anthem. The IRFU should gracefully tell them to eff off, in their best D4 accent. When Ireland flop as they usually have done at these rugby events, according to the self-styled patriots it was because the AnbF wasn't played beforehand, therefore access to that deep well of patriotic bravery and fortitude was denied. I suppose that theory has gone out the window now.

Now says one councillor,
"I don't see why the IRFU are still refusing to play it at away grounds. It gives the impression that Ireland's Call is our national anthem,"

I seriously doubt that anybody outside Ireland gives a fraction of a moment's thought to what anthem is used by the 32 county rugby team, just as long as it's only one and not two in row.

In fairness is it right though if you wanna take to that extent that NZ get the Haka? I don't belief they should tbh?

Cllrs need something to whine about if it's not this it's the housing list or a leylandii.

The IRFU are the most sensitive to this issue.

On a personal level I would prefer nothing to IC. I think silence would be better and exercise the mind more I also love that feeling of AnF as it hits the crescendo. Roll on to 1525 tomorrow when 82300 of us will be singing out!

There was a great letter in this morning's Indo. Some self-righteous ***** proudly announcing that he and his mates would be supporting Australia in protest against the IRFU not playing the Republic's national anthem. I'd have loved to have seen the look on his face as he watched that masterplan unfold. Hopefully he'll be supporting England in the semis if we get that far.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/le...l-2879700.html

Supporting a team, in the Commonwealth, that proudly has the Queen as HoS, that has a UJ in the Canton of it's flag... roight.

Not really sure what he aims to achieve.

The lack of knowledge of sine sections if southern society of how we hit here etc is staggering. Rather than derail the topic, can I just say that I really enjoyed the game and look forward to the next month.

Now what do we reckon about Wales-Samoa?

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Originally Posted by BonnieShels

Now what do we reckon about Wales-Samoa?

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Three words.

Too. Ducking. Early.

Just in. Gonna attempt a power nap and then hit France Canada. Danger.

Missing a cracking match. I'd to get up early to prepare reports, caught an amazing opening half of football from Utah (Utah vs BYU) and the first play from BYU was something out of a blooper reel. Anyway, now sitting and watching a really tight match between Wales and Samoa. Samoa leading at the half, but by god are they hitting hard. Wales doing well, if they can keep going the Samoans could/shoujld run out of steam and then the welsh sneak a 5-10 point win.

Good try by Samoa
About the anthem not really bothered, just hate that dirge they have at the moment - Danny Boy would be a cool anthem to have
Brilliant result for the rugby boys - hope they go all the way. When u think of the monosyllabic moronic fellas on the Football team, and compare them to the rugby lads - different class I think,more heart as well

Charlie laid out why we have Irelands Call for the genuine all ireland organisations.The attitude and ignorance in recent days on things like liveline shows that it's definitely not just unionists that cause the issues.

For what it's worth, i support the theory, but we have enough non contentious traditional songs that could've been used. Still, better than the Rose of Tralee that was used in the first Rugby World Cup...

France and Canada is in the balance. 16-10 now but only because France just scored a couple of late first-half penalties. France will surely stretch away in the second half but Canada are unlucky to be behind, playing well the Canucks.

Ouch another France penalty - the Canadians will be kicking themselves for giving away three handy penalties just before half time.

Turning on tv so early in the morning should come with a mental health warning, yesterday morning I was struck dumb when faced with The Waltons.

Does the beard factor have an influence? there's a few canucks with fearsome looking beards.

Could Glen Whelan evoke the spirit of Tony Grealish by growing a beard?

Terrific defensive performance.

So glad that it looks like we avoided the Boks in the Q Finals. Our back row forwards vs theirs = world war 3. Would be nice to meet em in a final.

Bet 20 they would beat aus beforehand. :)

I have a bad feeling about wales now though.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

There was a great letter in this morning's Indo. Some self-righteous ***** proudly announcing that he and his mates would be supporting Australia in protest against the IRFU not playing the Republic's national anthem. I'd have loved to have seen the look on his face as he watched that masterplan unfold. Hopefully he'll be supporting England in the semis if we get that far.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/le...l-2879700.html

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The IRFU receives millions in grants from the taxpayers of Ireland every year, yet while the team is abroad they will not play our national anthem.

The players and fans stand to attention for 'Ireland's Call' -- what a disgrace.

I, like most of my friends, will be supporting Australia. If the Government wants to save money, I believe they should start with the IRFU.

Patrick Troy
Ballycullen, Dublin 24


Irish Independent


What an idiotic letter. As well as the old chestnut about the hardworking taxpayers subsidising the lazy, out-of-touch suits, 'Patrick Troy' seems to have forgotten (or rather overlooked) the one-sixth of the island of Ireland that does not have Amhran na bhFiann as its anthem, indeed, for those who are unionists they probably find it offensive.

I personally think Ireland's Call is great, a rousing song if a bit cheesy. Bet of all it is a neutral song unlike GSTQ or AnbhF.

On a different note, well done on your win the other day, I look forward to our meeting in the quarter-finals! Of course, now I've said that, watch us lose to Fiji and go out at the pool stage, again. Eminently possible if we play as we did today. Can you believe despite winning the Grand Slam twice in the last decade, I haven't seen us throw a decent ball from the lineout since about 1978? :angry2:

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Originally Posted by The Fly

To the home of stupid place names and the amber nectar, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, questionable cuisine, Dame Edna, Alf Stewart, Michael Hutchence, Skippy, Ayer's Rock/Uluru, Kylie and Jason, Rupert Murdoch, Mel Gibson (sort of), Shane Warne and Rolf Harris...........your boys took one hell of a beating!!!

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Nobody in Australia drinks Fosters (or so I'm reliably informed)
Russell Crowe was born in New Zealand
Nicole Kidman was born in Hawaii
Still amazing to beat the tar out of them though ;)